Is Arsenal outcast Shkodran Mustafi a bargain at £15 Million?

There is a lot of talk about Arsenal trying to offload Shkodran Mustafi before the European transfer window shuts on September 2nd.

I was reading an article in the Daily Star, yes I know, and they had a single line that stated his value had dropped to just £15 Million. Remember, we bought him for £35 Million just three years ago from Valencia.

I also checked on Transfermarkt and they have him valued at £22.5 Million. So, the speculation is that the German is worth between £15 Million and £22.5 Million.

Now, I know a lot of you will say he can go for free, I will drive him to the airport, we will pay them to take him off our hands and so on but in all seriousness, he does have a proper value and my question is, will a club be getting a bargain if they can land him for just £15 Million?

I would say yes, that would be a bargain.

Just because he failed at Arsenal does not mean he would fail elsewhere, he was a success in La Liga and good enough to represent Germany.

There is a massive list of players that have done brilliantly in foreign leagues but failed in the Premier League, Juan Veron, Diego Forlan, Gerard Pique, Radamel Falcao and many many more.

Mustafi is just 27-years-old, he could easily have another six years or more at the top, so why should we sell him for a low fee.

Yes, Arsenal could do with getting his wages off the books but we are not talking £350k per week here and in no way should the club be considering basically giving him away for that reason.

I feel £20 Million is a good enough figure and the fact that clubs in Italy like AC Milan are rumoured to be interested tells you that there are clubs out there that do not hold the low opinion of Mustafi that is so widespread at Arsenal.

44 Comments

  1. His star has really fallen. Especially after last season. He’s essentially become a global meme for bad defending, so yes, if we can get £15mill I’d say that is fine.

  2. Take the £20m. Hes 27, so whoever buys him gets a least a good 5years out of him. Just didnt work for him at Arsenal like it didnt when he was at Everton. Time to cut our losses, move on and get the tiung guns ready in Holding, Mavraponas, Saliba and Tierney.

  3. He is worth no less than twenty millions, because he is:

    – Still 27 years old
    – A World Cup winner
    – Rarely injured
    – Has plenty of experience in the most competitive European leagues – – Has some of the best defending stats in EPL last season

    Unfortunately his contract will end in 2021, so Arsenal have to extend it if no club want to buy him at the end of this season. Mustafi just made some horrible decisions last season, but not in 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons

    1. I don’t think Mustafi is anywhere near as bad as some say but you keep banging on about his worth due to being a World Cup winner but put it in perspective. He made two subs appearances in the opening rounds and made one start in the group of 16 before coming off injured. He hardly won the World Cup for Germany.

  4. I would snap any club’s hand off for that! He has flopped hard for us. I agree with the article, that maybe he’ll do better in a less challenging league. Just like with Xhaka, who I think may do well in Italy, given it’s a slower tempo over there.

  5. One thing we probably fail to point out is that Mustaphi wasn’t doing badly when he joined. Look, Our defensive coaches the last ten years or so for me were not exactly doing their job well, maybe that prompted Bould’s demotion. Mustaphi at 15mil for me is a steal.He’s got most of the qualities you want in a center back. His reading of the game needs vast improvement and I think that’s where he is lacking. Maybe that can be taught because I see his willingness to defend his heart out and what better place to learn than the serie A. I believe he would do well in a low paced league like the serie A.

  6. The way we value our players sometimes is funny, mustafi is a World Cup Winner like giroud who didn’t even scored a goal at the World Cup, and he has massive experience he’s played in la liga and the premier league, am sure we will not get anything less than 25million for him.

    1. Giroud was a key player for the way France were set up.

      Mustafi was a squad player. And he’s worse now.
      But admin is right: 15 – 22 is his realistic worth, as he’s only 27…

  7. If we get offered £10m up front for Mustafi I would take it.Forget about the fact that he was included in the German squad which won the World Cup as he did not actually play and from memory it coincided with injuries to other centre backs who were higher up the pecking order.We have to accept that Mustafi is another example of Mr Wenger’s CB calamities over the years and try to unload him before the European window closes if at all possible.Nothing against Mustafi personally, but like a number of Valencia supporters I have met when visiting that beautiful city I simply do not rate him as a player.

    1. Exactly! Mustafi was a late addition after Gundogan got injured. He even raised Gundogan’s jersey as an appreciation/dedication for being part of the world cup winning team.

  8. To be honest yes! Mustafi would play a lot better and mistake free if he was alongside the likes of Harry Maguire or a strong defensive general who ran the back line and bullied him into action and was vocal and telling him when why and how!!
    He,s a soldier that’s all! Give him responsibility and he mucks up.

  9. We will struggle to overload as any coach will see he makes fundamental mistakes in positioning and reading play and going ground because of the former and latter.
    In a chaos defending situation he shows as positive and some of his best games have been when we have had to thrown ourselves about deep in our own box, how the higher up the pitch, he becomes a liability. Often we see that his instincts are wrong and he over commits or loses opponents through lack of danger awareness.
    10-15 million offer should be jumped out as every pound note recovered from nil is a bonus.

  10. @dan kit why did you bring iwobi into these again it’s because of your type of ppl that will make other pples go beyond normal reasoning and bash ozil with his current situation,. I want ozil abroad asap d.c, calling…………… My apologies to the entire gunners family here @just arsenal

    1. Ok mate after your comment yesterday I’m surprised your even aloud on here to answer your question I was comparing what we got
      For iwobi and said we should be able to get a lot more for mustafi
      And what do you mean “your type of people”?

    2. You can apologize as much as you like but you are on your very last warning. Do not act like a twat again. I am going to give you ten minutes….

      1. admin martin, can you kindly clarify who your comment about taking ten minutes was directed at , many thanks.

  11. let musthaveaweewee go for free, he is beyond useless, and collecting his salary is an absolute crime .he is being paid for doing nothing . but, he is not the only current arsenal player in that situation. so yeah, get rid of , at all costs, i say.

    1. admin martin, can you kindly clarify who your comment about taking ten minutes was directed at , many thanks.

  12. I think 20 mil. would be a fair price because I doubt any club would pay more at this point. And it would benefit all parties.

    Mustafi isn’t going to play again for Arsenal, Emery can’t trust him not to make that one decisive mistake. It makes no sense to continue to pay him to do nothing, so the club should try to get the most it can get for him now to have that available to buy in the January window if necessary.

    In American sports, it is often said that an underperforming player “can benefit from a change of scenery”. This applies to Mustafi. He’s not a bad player overall, but he began to make that costly error that let down his team and drew the ire of the fans. He let that “get in his head”, and now it’s become “a self-fulfilling prophecy”. You can see it when he comes on the pitch and it makes him useless to Arsenal at this point. He needs to go elsewhere, where he won’t have that fear in his head, in order to get back to being a consistent defender again.

    Each of the top European leagues has its own character and quality. The PL is the toughest to play in because it is the most competitive. Make a mistake that you can get away with against most teams in the other leagues and most teams in the PL will punish you. Mustafi can make his couple of mistakes in the other leagues and it won’t matter most of the time, but in the PL they’re likely to be decisive more often than not. For a good team in the other leagues, Mustafi isn’t a liability and, with the psychological pressure off, can even be a good defender. There’s a bit of a risk in buying him, but at the price defenders are fetching these days, 20 mil. is a bargain; a big bargain if he gets his head together, not so much of one if he doesn’t. Given the latter possibility, Arsenal has to offer a bargain to attract a buyer and that’s a price that should.

    Make a deal at that price and all sides make out well.

  13. My honest view is that every other current on the books CB at Arsenal, bar the youth team, is a better choice than Mustafi. I consider it vital that he never again wears our first team shirt and passionately want him sold. Obviously, I want as much fee as possible for him, as will all Gooners, BUT it is FAR more important that he leaves asap, no matter what the fee. Apart from Schillachi and possibly Senderos, he has been the very worst of Wengers long list of dud CB’s bought. In fact only one has been a true great brought in by Wenger; Sol Campbell. Koscielny, when at his personal peak some years ago now was by far Wengers second best BUT a distant second in class behind Campbell. Virtually all the other Wenger buys at CB have been average to rubbish. MAYBE Vermaelen was good for just one season and that is about it.

    1. Some will no doubt mention Toure, an Invincible. But I never thought him remotely above a good average and he greatly benefitted from playing beside the immaculate CAMPBELL WHO MADE HIM LOOK FAR BETTER THAN HE REALLY WAS! JUST MY OPINION

    2. Any fee would do it if you take into account the amount of money saved in wages,I don’t know how much but it has to be in the millions no??

  14. Like everything in life,the value of something or someone is what one is ready to pay!an example Crystal palace valued Zaha at 100M but no one else agreed but I truly believe to them is worth it if not more,he is the difference between staying up or relegation and we know the amount involved!we got 5M for Koss and 10 for Bielik and 34 for iwobi,at 15M he would be a good bargain and believe he would be a bargain and we should ask for more,still young and experienced for a defender,world cup winner….

  15. Mustafi is a very good defender. His stats should tell all people the complete story…

    One thing I’ve pointed out with most fans is that they don’t do any analysis on players. Mustafi has high stats for clearances, aerial duels and tackles because the midfield we had last season was Championship level at best – no tempo dictators.

    That’s why I was telling people that Maguire is a very good defender – – then Mason (just like most arsenal fans) thought otherwise; now he’s busy apologizing. Maguire was better than Van Dijk in almost every stat because Liverpool midfield does most of the donkey work for the defenders.

    1. People tend to remember others mistakes,I wonder if they are the same way with themselves if not it is hypocritical!I remember fans last season blaming Auba for missing the top 4 because he missed the penalty against the spuds forgetting everything else he contributed to the team not only goals, sadly I can’t disagree with you!!

  16. One other thing:
    Defending is a team effort; that’s why teams that utilize “high-press” e.g. Liverpool, Man City often concede less goals because the defending starts from the strikers, to the midfielders and ultimately defenders.

    You will forever be a bad defender in Arsenal because when the likes of Ozil, Xhaka, Mkitaryan lose the ball, they just either raise their hands or “JOG” back like it’s none of their business…

    1. Wow!! You are just spot on mate. So true. I think it won’t matter who we buy, they will eventually be rubbish until the rest outfield players becomes responsible.
      Arsenal’s (frankly Wenger’s) philosophy leaves defending for only defenders. This is the root cause of our defending woes!!

  17. mustafi may have failed for us but he is no useless def. he is a good age 27, very fit rarely misses games unlike our other defenders and the man does give everything he got all game long. his mental qualities like reading the game and decision making is bad which makes bigger headlines he makes a mistake. defenders need compatibility he needs a commanding cb to guide his warrior style defending

  18. The name of the poster certainly reflects the content of the reply.

    I believe it is in the interest of both the club and the player that he is moved on.

    When a coach/manager has publically come out and said he is willing to let a player go, what is there left between the two of them in footballing terms.

    Furthermore, he is worth the figure suggested, but we shouldn’t barter with any club wanting his services, he needs to go.

    I will wish him all the best, he has never disgraced the shirt, always conducted himself properly and made the classic remark…”I’m a better player since UE arrived” or words to that effect…funny old game mustafi, funny old game!!!

    1. Ken , On the previous thread(with no direct reply option attached to your post) you mentioned four questions. Perhaps right now on this thread, you will remind me what they were. If I can I will gladly answer them. I suspect this goes way back but you clearly need my answer so I will oblige, once I know what they are.

  19. Admin:I would like to report the comment from the kreonkes on this article for homophobic comments made towards Mustaphi and in general!

      1. TK, Shouldn’t you begetting ready for the next BNP march , instead of talking with enlightened people on here! I suspect you are finding it a novel experience talking with REAL MEN!

  20. The Kroenkes, A shockingly bigoted remark. Shame on you! Gay men ARE real men. So are bigoted men, male too. “REAL MEN” may be a step too far though for bigots. Fortunately though, a very tiny minority of men are bigoted like you. I guess you will know all about that last remark anyway.

  21. Sell for $15-20m and use that money to fund Upacemano in January. Or to get Bouboucar Kamara who’s in the last year of his contact.

  22. Mustafi Mustafi, how much of the 51 goals was Mustafi’s fault, I will say Xhaka and Guendouzi had basically the same numbers of errors that caused goals against us.

    I mean Mustafi make me wan to smash the tv at times but thereare others that may cause the same feelings.What our defense cries for is leadership and good organisation skills. This been missing from Arsenal so long.

    Now while the defense hass been erratic the main cause of our down fall has been our non existent midfield.YES THE INCONSISTENT PLAYERS IN OUR MIDFIELD IS OUR MAJOR PROBLEM. Let us take a look at the top two their defense does less work than an arsenal defense, WHY, their midfield work intensively can we say that with our midfield, NO.

    Sale on Mustafi 15-20M sound right

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